Zohra Segal (Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan)

Biography

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan, better known as Zohra Sehgal, was born into a Sunni Muslim Rohilla Pathan family of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, on 27th April, 1912 in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India. However, unlike most other children of traditional households, Zohra Sehgal was a tomboy, who enjoyed climbing trees and playing games. Always rebellious, she saw in her teens Uday Shankar perform in Dehra Dun, during a vacation there, and that acted as the turning point of her life. Read more...The couple first worked in Uday Shankar's dance institute at Almora.When it shut down, they migrated to Lahore and founded their own Dance Institute. However, the growing communal tension prior to the Partition of India made them feel unwelcome, and they went to Bombay, where Zohra joined Prithviraj Kapur's theater as a stage actress and worked there for 14 years.

They had two children, who had the choice of being Hindu or Muslim. For a while they accepted both, then discarded them. By that time, Zohra became an atheist. Her husband was all along a 'non-religious' man.

Zohra had acted on the stage in different parts of India, including plays performed for jails inmates. According to Khushwant Singh, she once stayed back to witness an execution in the Ferozepore jail after staging a play there.

After her husband's suicide, Zohra first moved to Delhi, and then went to London. When she did not get roles as a dancer or an actress, she took on odd jobs like working in the India Tea Centre. Then she got her first break in the films and was signed by Arthur Rank and Merchant Ivory productions.

In India, she became well-known after the appeared in the TV series Mullah Naseeruddin. She has since appeared in many Bollywood as British (mostly British Indian) movies.